The emotional and unforgettable new romance from the New York Times bestselling author of the On Dublin Street series.

Alexa Holland’s father was her hero—until her shocking discovery that her mother and she weren’t his only family. Ever since, Alexa has worked to turn her life in a different direction and forge her own identity outside of his terrible secrets. But when she meets a man who’s as damaged by her father’s mistakes as she is, Alexa must help him.

Caine Carraway wants nothing to do with Alexa’s efforts at redemption, but it’s not so easy to push her away. Determined to make her hate him, he brings her to the edge of her patience and waits for her to walk away. But his actions only draw them together and, despite the odds, they begin an intense and explosive affair.

Only Caine knows he can never be the white knight that Alexa has always longed for. And when they’re on the precipice of danger, he finds he’ll do anything to protect either one of them from being hurt again....

This is my first Samantha Young book but I’ve been anxious to read her stories. The synopsis to Hero sounded so good that I had to jump on it. Hero was a fast-paced story of secrets, lies, and romance.

Alexa Holland and Caine Carraway have never met but their families have a history together. Three months ago Alexa lost her mother and when she did it brought to light some ugly truths. Alexa’s father came from a famous wealthy family, but when a tragic mistake happened, his family disowned him. Growing up Alexa always idealized her father and she saw him as her personal hero. She was happy when he was around and she felt loved by him. She was heartbroken when she discovered her father’s dirty secrets and about the child that was hurt in the aftermath of his bad decisions.
Caine and Alexa meet when Caine has a photo shoot with her boss. Caine was the child her father unintentionally hurt. Meeting Caine unnerves Alexa and when she confesses who she is, it doesn’t go well. Her confession and the subsequent fall out results in her being fired. After a twist of chance, Caine hires Alexa as his personal assistant. From the start their work relationship is filled with tension and animosity on his part. Alexa is fun, sweet, and a bit of a smart a$$, and it drove him crazy. Caine is a take charge kind of man. He was sexy but he’s intimidating, gruff, and he’s trying to push Alexa to her limits. It was interesting to see how he would push her buttons next.

Despite the tension, his gruff behavior, there seemed to be an attraction brewing between the two, but Caine was determined not to give in to it. You could feel the build up between the them and it eventually explodes during one lust filled night. Caine insists that it is a one time thing but if the passionate connection is still there, how can they ignore it?

Alexa and Caine were interesting characters . They both had their own issues to deal with. Alexa always felt like the outcast of her family and that left her feeling vulnerable and insecure in some ways. Caine’s conflicting nature fueled Alexa’s insecurities. I did wonder why Caine could be a jerk one minute and then sweet the next. The closer they became it seemed possible that he could want more but he held himself back and I wondered what he could be hiding.

This book was just ok for me. I was expecting more angst and emotion from this story line but I didn’t really experience that. That made it difficult for me to full invest myself into this story. I became bored with the constant back and forth between the characters. On more than one occasion I wanted to shake some sense into them lol. I did enjoy the chemistry between these characters and the humor and steamy scenes. I am looking forward to reading Samantha’s other works. 🙂

One response to “Book Review: Hero by Samantha Young”

This was my first by her as well (review up later this week). I actually really liked it and was surprised. I went in thinking I wouldn’t. I got it for review and so don’t remember requesting it so was pretty hesitant about starting it. That might have helped me some since it turned out way better than I had expected. lol I did want to shake them a couple times myself 😉 Heh.